Monday, October 28, 2013

Good news! Practicality hit me again and I've decided to give up buying my dream watch. Before you could read this post, I will be in my home province enjoying the simple life with my two daughters. That's right, I am spending my Michael Kors Runway Chronograph money in a much needed visit to see my grandpa. Instead of saving $250 on that watch which I've been meaning to purchase for Christmas, I gifted myself with this gold Cherie watch plus a short vacation to Romblon.

Back to Cherie Paris, I first saw this brand in a duty free magazine while in a plane to Istanbul.

This analog watch by Japanese quartz movement is stainless steel aside from water resistant so it is guaranteed rust free. It is very light, weighing only 0.03 kilogram, functional, very feminine, and can go with with either formal or casual look. I bought this item in Lazada.com.ph for only P2,200. It comes in silver color too.

If I were to compare Cherie Paris with other watch brands in the market today, I can say that it is pretty much competitive. Not to mention, watches from this brand are more affordable even engineered with Japanese Quartz movement.

I am using this watch more than my Guess and Fossil watches. I love how light it is and how stylish it looks when worn. Will surely recommend this brand to my friends.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Oh yes! Here's one just because I promised you last time that I'll host another after my birthday giveaway. Sorry that it took a while though. 'Twas a little hard to decide what to giveaway because I had a problem with post office recently. They won't accept shipment of any liquid or cream anymore, same with the nearest courier to my place. As a remedy, I think I am going to divide this giveaway into 2 winners. The first winner should be able to pick up her prize, while the second winner will receive her prize through shipping.

What do I have here? These are selected items from my beauty stash. Honestly, I accumulated these items from tokens and gifts that PR companies give or send me and the rest is the result of panic buying. Haha.. IKR? So, I am hosting this giveaway instead of letting vines grow on them. The 1st winner will receive the following:

-Pond's pinkish white pearl cream

-Wish nail color collection

-Dalan family soap (Turkish brand)

-travel size containers

-L'Oreal Total Repair Shampoo

-Pond's double action radiant eyes

-Mary Kay night complex

-Penti barely there sandal toe tights (Turkish brand)

-The Body Shop SPA FIT toning concentrate

-Etude House easy brow pencil

-Pond's Pore conditioning toner

-Bath & Body Works hand gel

The second winner will get this pink swimsuit.

How to join? Refer to Rafflecopter below.Sorry. This contest is over.

Repost or regram this image and gain another entry.

This giveaway is open both for local and international readers. Like I said, I will pick 2 winners. The 1st winner should be local and pickup point is anywhere near Shaw Blvd. MRT Station.

On the other hand, the 2nd winner could be either local or international (up to Rafflecopter to decide on that) and prize will be sent through local post.

Start of this giveaway is today October 25, 2013. Last day to enter will be November 15, 2013. Extended until November 20. The mandatory requirement is to comment to this post. One can gain up to 28 entries in order to win.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

First of all, I want to thank God for this wonderful blessing that He has given my family. Truly am grateful that we have a new addition in our family. When I first learned that I was pregnant with Suna, I was actually with mixed emotions. Now that she's already in my arms, seeing her wonderful milestones everyday, I can't help but be happy and thankful.

Look at those chubby cheeks. From a tiny little baby which I delivered at MMC, she is now 2 months and 17 days old and weighing 5.35 kilos. If you guys follow me in IG and liked my FB page, you must have seen her latest video where she's cooing and trying to have baby talk with me. And in case you're wondering how did she grow up this cute, well, it's because I breastfeed her every single day. Apparently, it is a beautiful bond we share aside from kissing, hugging, or cuddling.

I love you little darling. You are my sweet sunshine in the morning. My Sunam!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Our elder daughter turned 5 last month with a Disney Princess themed party. She originally wanted to celebrate at home but we didn't allow it 'cause of limited leg room in our unit. Besides, we don't think it's fun to have almost 15 kids, over 20 adults and a newborn baby all in an 84 square meter condominium. So, we only had a simple celebration on her very birth day then booked McDonald's El Pueblo in Ortigas for a grand party.

My little princess in an Aurora costume. I had this dress customized for a thousand pesos.

The kids. She exclusively invited her best-friends, playmates, classmates and schoolmates.

No more guest is coming? Time to start the party ate! :)

First game for kids. I don't know how they call it. Isn't this pass-the-balloon-game? :P

Make a wish dear! Blowing the candle on her Disney Princess themed cake by Sophie's Mom.

Hubby and I are both happy that we were able to fulfill our elder daughter's dream princess party.

We spent nearly P10,000 for the food and venue. The grand total is roughly P15,000 if I were to add the princess costume, princess cake, and the lootbags (not in the photo). That's it for the fastfood birthday celebration. Next big birthday for our elder daughter is her 7th.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

While I had the chance to visit a few places in Turkey last summer, I noticed that most multi-dwelling units there are low-rise, apartment buildings stand in rows and they are mostly 5 to 10 storeys only. Most of those apartments don't have elevators, though rooms are normally spacious, some are adorned with flowers at the facade, others have direct access to a major road.

I love it because of the different variety of roses all over the place.

One thing that I don't like about this Turkish apartment though, is the country or traditional interior. I have nothing against Ottoman design but imagine a cabinet from long long time ago full of unused glassware, silverware and chinaware. Also, I wish they don't have that hard sofa-bed in the guestroom. I swear if we are to move to Turkey and hubby purchased a new apartment for the family, I would buy bedroom sets and prettify my apartment the modern way. Goodbye crochet pieces and boring furniture. Hello chic and urban furnishing and architectural features!

This is about the newly-opened restaurant called Project Pie, the first international franchise of Project Pie US, located at #515 Shaw Boulevard here in Mandaluyong. I see endless line of people every time I pass this store and they don't deliver so I was very much interested to pay a visit. Dragged hubby to this place for a quick dinner one rainy night and here's my honest review.

In case you still don't know, Project Pie Mandaluyong is right in the front of the developing S & R Shaw or the former location of Cherry Foodarama.

Inside Project Pie restaurant: I loved the uniformed lights, the photo booth (which uploads photos to their Instagram account) and the graffiti wall with lots of famous quotes.

These are the artisan pizzas which hubby designed for himself. So far, the 5 cheese pizza is the best. I know I'm such a fan of melting cheeses. I can eat anything with MOZZARELLA.

These are the pizzas which I customized for myself. Okay, unlimited topping is good, others even shamelessly made mountains of them, but the rubbery crust is not nice when it's already cold.

In conclusion, I love the idea of making my own pizza, choosing any topping I want, without paying extra. The ambiance of the store is lively and the staff are friendly. Most of all, this pizza place is just a hop away from home. However, as much as I want to enjoy Project Pie's affordable artisan pizzas (less than P300 for a thin crust pizza in 4 slices), I can't stand their queue which is always long and quite slow. Imagine standing there for 90 minutes, waiting for your turn to get your order. People come in pack and they would occupy the seats while one of their companions line up. Oh, I saw a woman who just consumed her pizza while standing in the corner. No one bothered to offer her a seat. Shame on that guy in front of her with 2 more 'reserved seats' with his wife and kid still lining up. Sana pinaupo nya nalang muna yung ale di ba?

Anyway, our pizza experience at Project Pie is something really unforgettable in a total of 100 minutes. Let say hubby and I walked from our house to #515 Shaw in 2 minutes, we queued for 90 minutes, they cooked our orders for 2 minutes, we ran home under the pouring rain for 3 minutes and then we ate the pizzas in another 3 minutes.

Monday, October 21, 2013

I think Coca-Cola's campaign called 'Share a Coke' is just awesome. I wonder when will they start doing it here in the Philippines. Too bad I have a uniquely spelled given name so I'm sure it won't see it on any of those bottles. However, expect common boy names like James, Joshua, Mark, Ryan, John, and Jayson, then girl names like Angelica, Christine, Kyla, Nicole, Jessa, Michelle, and Jenny to appear.

In Turkey, they have bottled and canned Coke bearing common Turkish names like Ahmet, Ailem, Özlem and Mehmet. Not sure though if they have my daughters' names.

In this YouTube video, you can see bottled Coke with so many different names. I see Tim, Rob, Finn, Andrew John, Victoria, Rachel, Kyle, Ben, Sarah, Joel, Mike, Hannah, and many more.

It's just fun, right? What do you think?! :)

Source of Photo and Video:
http://www.campaigntr.com/http://www.youtube.com/user/musicgenerator

Sunday, October 20, 2013

I have no idea who started this concept and don't know the reason behind it, but when my elder daughter Aşkim was still a baby, we bought her a cake almost every 25th of the month and sung her 'happy birthday' until she turned 1. Personally, I was doing it to show how grateful I was that Heavenly blessed my family with such an adorable daughter. Indeed, I am always in the state of gratitude seeing her amazing milestones each day.

Now we have a repeat with our second daughter Suna. I requested hubby to buy her a cake on her 1st month and he was like, "Again? So we will do this again every month?!" And I was like, "Of course!" I made it clear to him that I don't want Suna to question me later on why we didn't celebrate her birthday each month until reaching the age of one. Being their mom, I want them to feel equally loved. The size or the brand of the cake doesn't matter to me. What matters the most is my expression of love with the happiness they brought to our lives.

A photo of my little girls and I on Suna's 2nd month birthday..

Now you know how random I look without makeup..^^

Nonetheless, I am the happiest about having two beautiful daughters, the first being 5 and the second just 2 months old. I imagine just a few years from now, these two will enjoy going to school or watching movies together. A little more years and then we will be hitting the malls and shopping like sisters. Ahh.. it's one of my greatest dreams!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Trick or treating is just around the corner. Time to look for that most unique or scariest Halloween costume again. As for me, it must be a simple, DYI or cheap if possible, in a very girly color. Being a mother of two girls, all that I want is for them to look lovely and never scary. For 4 years, my firstborn have been trick or treating in cute costumes.

She wore a DIY Hawaiian costume when she was 1 year old.
I handmade everything, the grass skirt, baby bra, flower necklace and bracelet.

A pink cheongsam (gift from a friend) was her Halloween costume when she was 2.
She paired it with pink sandals and flower pigtails and viola.. my little Chinese girl!

Another DIY was this Minnie Mouse inspired Halloween costume when she was 3.
The girl in pink is her bestfriend. She wore a pink princess costume.

Last year, she celebrated Halloween at school in a simple cowboy costume,
whilst her classmates were either a princess, a fairy or a manga character.

This year, she will be wearing a customized Aurora (Disney Princess) dress.
That's the same dress she wore on her 5th birthday.

On the other hand, our chubby cheeks is going to wear her pink lady bug costume.
She's only a baby so I guess we won't go around trick or treating like her ate.

Are you ready for Halloween yet? What costume did you buy for your kid/s? Where are you going to trick or treat?

Friday, October 11, 2013

I made fun of the traditional tortang giniling or beef omelette and look how it turned out. Hubby isn't used to eating this dish. He changed his mind when I added a little twist. Ground beef omelette was included in my menu the other day and while preparing the ingredients, I was worrying if hubby will eat his part or not. To make the torta more appetizing, I decided to stuff it in onion rings and viola!

Preparation:
Saute onion in a nonstick pan.
Add ground beef after onion caramelizes.
Cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the diced potatoes.
Cook for another 5 minutes.
Season with salt and black pepper.
Remove from heat. Let cool.
Add beaten egg and mix well.
Line the onion rings in the pan.
Pack giniling and egg mixture to each ring.
Fry each side until brown.
Serve with ketchup and enjoy.

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This dish is good for bento lunch boxes. Kids will surely love it too. Try it now! :)

Friday, October 04, 2013

A small village called Şirince (pronounced as /shee-rihn-jee/) in Izmir Province is like the best place I have visited in Turkey. Our family went there for a day tour last summer after two nights in Kusadasi. Şirince is believed to have "positive energy" which attracted thousands of people who wanted to witness the Mayan Apocalypse in December 2012.

The old settlers of this village were Greek slaves that's why people used to call it Çirkince, meaning "ugly". In 1926, a Turkish governor changed Çirkince into Şirince which means "pleasant".

Happy family in Şirince. It was very hot that day yet I ignored the scorching sun. We just walked around the community to experience the culture and enjoyed taking photos of the scenery.

At the foot of the village is where you can find the souvenirs shops and restaurants. We just passed them, went uphill to St. John The Baptist Church, then checked the things on sale right after.

Colorful doll and house ref magnets for sale. Like I said, once done looking around, we entered some souvenir shops then bought something for relatives and friends at home.

My firstborn liked this store a lot. She asked us to buy wood boxes but we didn't get a good price in spite all the haggling. The seller even thought hubby was a foreigner. Lol.

This section was the most pleasant in there. I mean, most pleasant when it comes to taste and smell. Aside from candies and Turkish delight, they have organic soaps and pickles as well.

My photos do not give enough justice to this place but I swear it is very photogenic. No traffic. No pollution. People are normally friendly as it is visited by tourists everyday.

Clean cobblestone pathway. Flowers and vines by the roadside. Population of this place is just a little over 500. So ideal place to live after retirement.

Lush of greenery. Vineyard here. Olive tree plantation there.

Fresh pomegranate or orange juice anyone?

I would love to go to this place again if given the chance the next time that I visit Turkey. I just love old villages. It is one of my dreams to live in a place like this.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

I'm freaking excited because the Philippine premiere of The Walking Dead Season 4 is around the corner. October 19, 2013 is the date and the show will start at 8:55 PM. Hey, are you a fan of this TV series too? Which season is your favorite? Ready for more walkers?

I heard that Rick Grimes is back to his senses in this season. Well, he should be! As for Carl, I think it isn't true that he'll die in this season. He'll survive it with his dad and baby sister.

Daryl and Michonne.. two of my favorite characters. Oh yeah, I am definitely expecting more zombie head barbecue and flying body parts this season!

Lastly, I am curios about the 'love birds' Glenn and Maggie as much as I'm curios with the Governor and his next move. Let's see in eighteen days. Do not forget to tune in!